Thursday, 19 December 2013

Although shortbread is available all year round, there is something about Christmas and those buttery sweet treats that goes so beautifully together. Well, in fact, in Scotland it would be rude not to serve up a plate of shortbread at some point around Christmas and New Year!

Move over macaroons I say, because the humble shortbread is not only so much easier to make, but that buttery, soft, melt-in-the-mouth texture, combined with the nostalgia of home baked shortbread having adorned grandmas bikkie tin for years, makes these simple pleasures a beautiful gift for loved ones.

And for those of us avoiding gluten, the shortbread lends itself beautifully to a gluten free version due to the inherent crumbly and 'short' texture. I don't find all that much of a difference between a wheat and gluten free version, which is a nice change!!

So whilst you can simply press the mix into a slice tin and run a knife through it straight after baking to make into fingers, this year I chose to make them extra Christmassy by pressing the mix out into Christmas shapes and making a hole in the top with a straw to create an ornament effect!

Either way, get yourself some butter, GF flour and sugar and get cooking!

Royal icing ingredients

Method - Conventional

Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius. Line two trays with baking paper.

Beat the butter and icing sugar until light and creamy. Add the flour and stir until the mixture forms a soft dough.

Gently knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 5 minutes. Roll the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper until 1 cm thick. Using your preferred cookie cutters, cut out shapes and place on prepared trays.

Lightly brush the top of the shortbread with the milk and sprinkle with the sugar. (I didn't sprinkle with sugar as I iced mine with royal icing instead)

Bake for 15 minutes or until crisp and lightly golden. Cool slightly on the trays, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Decorate with prepared royal icing if desired.

For royal icing, place sugar and cream of tartar in a medium bowl. Gradually add egg white, whisking with an electric mixer until the mixture forms a thick white paste. Spoon icing into a piping bag and decorate as desired.

Method - Thermomix

Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius. Line two trays with baking paper.

Place butter and sugar in TM bowl and whip on speed 7 for 30-40 seconds, or until lighter in colour.

Add flour and mix on speed 3 for 30 seconds. Mixture will be quite crumbly but after some kneading and rolling out it will come together.

Follow steps 3-6 as above.

For royal icing, place all ingredients in clean and dry TM bowl. Mix on speed 2 for 5 seconds to combine then whip on speed 9 for 30 seconds. Add butterfly to bowl and whisk on speed 4 for another 30 seconds. Spoon icing into a piping bag and decorate as desired.

Wednesday, 6 November 2013

Nawwww, now these are just toooooo cute! Hehehe I certainly can't take credit for how adorable these little guys are - the silicone mould can take the bow for that one! But I felt the need to maximise the potential and whip up something beneficial for the kids.

I'm sure we all remember eating those apricot and coconut snack bars/slices, touted as healthy and our well meaning parents smiled satisfactorily as we gobbled them down. Problem is, the sugar and additives in these snacks actually outweigh any benefits from the apricot and coconut, and even these have the sulphur dioxide preservative added which, I don't know about you but I don't fancy my boys consuming this chemical!

Here's a leading brands ingredient list for Apricot and coconut bars. What do you think?

Friday, 18 October 2013

And so it is that I am a huge convert to juicing, if you haven't already noticed on Mellymaks Facebook page!
Earlier this year my hubby and I completed a 3 day detox,
created by the team at Food Matters. It wasn't so much a detox for us
but a door which we opened to find the wonderful world of juicing, among
other things (such as how much nicer activated nuts are, how little
hunger you feel when you actually feed your body with a barrage of
nutrients, the deliciousness of chia puddings etc!!).

So back to
juicing..... although I had tried it here and there in the past, and
actually had a juicer in the cupboard gathering dust (as many of us
do!!!) I hadn't felt the benefits of vegetable juice before, and the few
commercial varieties that I had tried in the past definitely gave the
idea of vegetable juice a bad name for me (think that terrible V8 juice
in a can!!).

But a green juice was part of the detox and so we
set about buying all the ingredients we needed - cucumber, parsley,
lemon, apple, celery, kale and ginger.

Thursday, 10 October 2013

Gee, it really has been a while between posts hasn't it? I have to admit, having Mellymaks Facebook page has made me a little more lazy about blogging because it is so easy to type up a quick recipe with a photo and, click, its out there!
But here we are, back together again, having a good ol' chat at the kitchen bench. With maybe a cuppa between us, or if its late enough in the day, maybe even a glass of wine! Why not?

'What have you been up to?'
'Ah not much. You know, nothing exciting enough to mention but enough to feel like I am run off my feet!'.
'Yep. I hear ya! Where does the time go?'

Wednesday, 28 August 2013

Yes, by the title of this post you can see that I had trouble defining exactly what this chocolate creation actually is! I don't think you would be wrong to say it is a custard, a pudding or a mousse, as it has elements of each of these in one.

Tuesday, 20 August 2013

Some of the most common things I hear about breakfast are 'I don't have time', 'I don't feel like eating first thing in the morning', 'I'm bored of traditional breakfast foods', and 'an hour or so after brekky I am searching for food again'.
Do any of those sound familiar to you? Sometimes kids can also be difficult customers when it comes to getting a good breakfast into them before school, and plenty of studies have shown a reduction in concentration with a nutrient poor/missed breakfast.

Thursday, 1 August 2013

Hmmm I'm starting to notice a trend with my blog. Ice cream, ice cream, and ice cream!!! Do you think I like it much?!

Well hopefully you do too. I know these pics would be enough to get me craving ice cream, even on the coldest of days!

Last night I realised I had no cream but in the fridge was a block of cream cheese and some organic yogurt so immediately cheesecake flavoured ice cream came to mind, of course!

So I used my original ice cream recipe but substituted the cream for the cream cheese and yogurt, and when it was almost finished churning, I threw in a couple of handfuls of frozen organic raspberries. Whilst it didn't churn as thick as with the cream, it hasn't frozen icy at all and is actually a lighter, slightly more acidic flavour. Quite refreshing really.

But what puts it into a league of its own is teaming it up with these little biscuits that quite seriously take seconds to whiz together, thanks, of course to the Thermomix! The recipe is based on the 40 second biscuit recipe found in the EDC Thermomix cookbook but I have made a few changes. Of course any of your favourite bikkies would work just as well - ginger, choc chip, even filling a brandy snap with the ice cream would make an impressive dessert for even the most discerning guest!

Tuesday, 25 June 2013

During the week most of us need dinner suggestions that take little time and effort, but never do we want little flavour!

I think this dish meets the brief!

The recipe requires a little bit of sauteeing in the beginning, but the reward is delicious smokey, garlicy, caramelised flavours in the finished dish, and the oven really gives a lovely texture and flavour to the rice - not to mention it saving you any further effort for 50 minutes!

As with most of my recipes, take ownership and self belief, and make this dish your own. If your family doesn't like the veggies I used, change them to suit your tastes. Increase or decrease the garlic, use fresh tomatoes while they are cheap and in abundance in the summer months, add seafood if that's your thing (in the last 15 minutes of cooking), a drained tin of kidney beans instead of chicken, or even a garnish of freshly chopped coriander and a squeeze of lime before serving instead of the spinach leaves. The important thing to maintain is the liquid to rice ratio and the rest you can play around with!

Wednesday, 19 June 2013

My eldest son starts school next year and already I think I have heard more about 'lunchbox etiquette' than anything else to do with school!!!

It seems gone are the days when pretty much every lunchbox consisted of a peanut butter or ham sandwich, cheese stick, Prima (Juice Box for many other parts of the country/world!), pack of chips and piece of fruit! And that's probably a good thing on the whole!

These days you have to be 'nude food' compliant, 'rainbow food' savvy, cold chain compliant, and must have not a trace of nut in sight! 5 days of the week, 38 weeks of the year, 13 years straight! AAAUUUGGGHHHH. How ever are we going to get out of the door each morning??!! And will we be accepted by the lunchbox police? ( :

In all seriousness though, the allergy thing is a big one these days, with so many kids administered with an EpiPen in the case of an anaphylactic shock. So not only do these parents understandably spend so much time and effort keeping their children safe and avoiding nuts, every parent who has school aged kids really needs to be mindful of the products they are sending to school in lunchboxes. That can be tough for a family not needing a radar for nuts in their life (or any other allergens for that matter).

So given I use nuts a lot, I really wanted to start exploring the nut free world so that next year we can be armed with some yummy homemade snacks that might just win over not only the lunchbox police, but also the nutrition police (me!) and most importantly, the taste police (being my boys!!).

Nutrient wise, when it comes to bikkies, these little guys not only contain a lot less sugar than probably all store bought varieties and many home baked too, but also actually provide goodness, coming from the black rice, sesame seeds and chia seeds! As I spoke about on Mellymaks Facebook page recently, 'black foods' are a powerhouse of minerals, isoflavones and antioxidants, helping to strengthen the immune system among other benefits. And milling the whole grain means that not only do you get those immunity benefits, but the fibre and healthy fats from the bran, germ and endosperm!

I spoke a lot about the benefits of seeds in STEP 3 of Mellymaks STEPS program, and the chia seeds and sesame seeds in these bikkies will certainly boost the kids with energy and nutrients galore!

Wednesday, 29 May 2013

This was such a fun recipe to develop! Apart from the obvious reason that copious amounts of chocolate goodness 'needed' to be consumed for 'testing purposes', it was also fun because my vision (that came to me around midnight one night by the way!) worked first go, which to me can only mean that these are so simple to make that it needn't be a special occasion to whip a batch up!

The smoothness of the truffle is discovered only through the snap of the dark chocolate coating. And once this delectable little ball melts away in your mouth, unlike conventional truffles, you'll be feeling not one ounce of guilt (well I didn't anyway!!) due to all the nutrients found in the raw cashews, cacao powder and raw organic coconut oil!

I'm already imagining the flavours you could inject into these truffles to make them that little more special..... finely ground coffee beans, finely grated orange/lime rind, a few drops of natural peppermint extract......!

I'm sorry to those of you needing to avoid nuts. Sunflower seeds come to mind as a possible replacement although I havent tried them. Perhaps soaking them overnight and then drying them well would soften them enough to achieve that smooth paste consistency. Let me know if any of you try that.

I obviously made these in the Thermomix which makes it all super super easy but I imagine a good quality food processor could achieve the same result.

Ingredients

Method - Conventional

1. Place raw cashews in a good quality food processor and blend until a smooth paste forms.2. Melt the coconut oil in a small saucepan on a low heat until just melted.3. Add coconut oil and remaining ingredients (except chocolate block) to the food processor and blend until a smooth thick paste forms (similar to a ganache). Taste for sweetness and add a little more rice malt
syrup if desired.4. Spoon
into chocolate moulds or if you dont have them, just scrape it all into
a container and once it sets spoon out into balls to coat with the
melted chocolate.5. Place moulds or container in the fridge and allow to set (this will take at least a couple of hours). 6. Once
set, melt a block of good quality dark chocolate, press out
cashew/chocolate ganache from moulds (or scoop from container) and spoon
over melted chocolate to coat. Place on a tray and back in the fridge
until chocolate sets.

Method - Thermomix

1. Blend cashews on speed 9 until a paste forms (approx 20 sec)2. Add coconut oil and melt at 60 degrees sp2 for 1 minute.3.
Add cacao powder, rice malt syrup, vanilla extract and cream and mix on
speed 4 until it all comes together into a smooth thick paste. (approx
15-20 seconds). Taste for sweetness and add a little more rice malt
syrup if desired.4.
Spoon into chocolate moulds or if you dont have them, just scrape it
all into a container and once it sets spoon out into balls to coat with
the melted chocolate.5. Place moulds or container in the fridge and allow to set (this will take at least a couple of hours). 6.
Once set, break up block of chocolate into single pieces and place in
clean and thoroughly dry TM bowl. Melt on speed 3, 60 degrees for 2
minutes.
7. Press
out cashew/chocolate ganache from moulds (or scoop from container) and
spoon over melted chocolate to coat. Place on a tray and back in the
fridge until chocolate sets.

Tuesday, 7 May 2013

It must have been the cold rainy weather we had this morning that made me crave this kind of cake!
And who doesn't love a teacake?!
Memories of Mum and I making apple teacakes with caramelised sliced apple laying delicately on top flooded my mind today, as my own son and I pieced together this little beauty! But if I'm to be honest with you, Jake was far more interested in pinching the raspberries from the middle and licking the bowl! Well, who can blame him really?!
As most of you know me quite well by now, you would be reading this waiting patiently to discover which injections of nutrients I have snuck into the mix! Weeeellllll, it was almost a case of my hands working independently of my mind! Before I even knew it, chia seeds were being soaked in a cup of brewed tea, almonds were being ground into a meal, and yogurt was dolloped into the bowl! How did that happen??!!! ( ;

Monday, 8 April 2013

I can hear all my fellow Coeliacs out there reading the title of this post saying 'yeah right - soft, tasty, easy. Can't be gluten free!'???!!!

I'm super excited to put this recipe together and be able to say 'YES IT IS!!'. Not only that, but its not all starchy and processed. I've put linseeds, chia, buckwheat and chickpeas in this mix which gives it real guts, substance and obviously a swag of nutrients!

I think the secret behind the soft texture is the greek yogurt. The cultures in yogurt do magical things to grains (meats too while I mention it!) to soften and lighten. Especially given the shorter proving time, I think the yogurt helped the yeast do its thing!

Tuesday, 26 March 2013

Its been a while since I blogged a recipe so I was keen and eager to make my vision for cheesecake with health benefits come to life!
Perhaps it has been the constant smell and talk of chocolate at this time of year that has penetrated my recipe development process, or perhaps there has been SO much chocolate around me that I needed to change it up a bit and work on other flavours...... nah, don't think there can ever be too much chocolate around me!!! ( :
But certainly this is a dessert that you can feel a little better about eating! Well, with the multitude of benefits from chia seeds, raw cacao, rapadura sugar, raspberries, dates, nuts, raw honey, mesquite powder, cinnamon, cardamon...... I'm thinking there's no guilt involved at all with this 'treat'!

Thursday, 28 February 2013

Whether it be Dolmio, Kan Tong, Maggi, Raguletto..... you name it, they have a sauce for it!

The demand has come from 'convenience' and 'time poor' consumer trends, which have driven the majority of new products to grace supermarket shelves over the last couple of decades.

Unfortunately saving a few minutes in the kitchen has come at a cost. With these sauces/gravies/marinades come a whole heap of additives and 'fake' ingredients, and in many cases the end result is over complicated with ingredients that don't need to be there!

So here are some simple, natural, and quick to make recipes that will have you leaving the jars (and additives) on the shelf, and some money in your pocket!

Saturday, 9 February 2013

This tart is sure to impress when you present it to the table, as it will while it is baking, the smells making their way through your house and luring hungry mouths to the kitchen!

As we start to bid farewell to another beautiful stone fruit season, get in quick to celebrate these delicious fruits and make this colourful, tasty and yet somewhat healthy tart! Don't despair though, when the stone fruit season is long gone, you can instead use apples and pears, fig and orange, or quince and rhubarb. YUM!

Allow to cool until just warm (if you cut it up too early it will fall apart easily so let the butter solidify to hold the base together) and serve with a dollop of organic vanilla yogurt for afternoon tea, or ice cream or cream for a dessert. It would also be delicious with a slightly sweetened (try honey and cinnamon) mascarpone or smooth ricotta.

As I seem to be getting a reputation of doing, the base is, of course, loaded with nutrient packed grains and seeds - chia, flax, rice and buckwheat, as well as the goodness of almonds, coconut and chickpeas! So you don't have to feel totally guilty for eating this tart!

If you don't have a Thermomix, don't despair, just use the flours, and if you can, grind the seeds in a food processor.

Method - Conventional

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Line a 20cm springform tin with baking paper and lightly grease the sides.

Slice fruit into quarters or eighths (depending on how small your fruit is) and set aside.

If you have a food processor, grind up the chia and flaxseeds until fine. Add the coconut and process until finely chopped. (If you don't have a food processor, just add all flours and seeds in a large bowl and work the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingertips until a fine breadcrumb consistency).

Add flours and sugar and mix to combine.

Add butter and pulse until thoroughly combined.

Press mixture into prepared tin with your fingers to make an even base. Place the sliced fruit evenly over the base and sprinkle sugar over the fruit to your liking (I probably used about 2 tbs)

Place in preheated oven and cook for approx 45-50 minutes.

Allow to cool in the tin until just warm. Slice carefully and serve with organic vanilla yogurt, ice cream or cream.

Method - Thermomix

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Line a 20cm springform tin with baking paper and lightly grease the sides.

Slice fruit into quarters or eighths (depending on how small your fruit is) and set aside.

Place chia, flax, chickpeas, rice and buckwheat in TM bowl and grind for 30 seconds on speed 9.

Add almonds, sugar and coconut and grind on speed 8 for a further 5 seconds.

Monday, 4 February 2013

So at this stage in the STEPS program we have made a lot of positive changes to our eating, on top of the good things we were doing even before starting!

But even those of us with the best intentions can find portion control a bit of a problem! You can be the healthiest of eaters, but if your portions are on the larger side, you may find losing weight or maintaining a healthy weight a bit of a challenge.

For example, this Roast Vegetable and Brown Rice Slice is full of nutrients and definitely a good meal choice. One serve would probably give you half a cup of rice, a couple of cubes of tofu, 1-2 serves of veg and a sprinkle of cheese. The recipe serves six. Not four, and not two! But I have to tell you, when I first made that slice, I'd be lying if I said we got six serves out of it!!! It was so moreish that we went back for more!

The problem is, when this becomes a regular occurrence, no matter how healthy your diet is, your body is going to store those excess kilojoules.

And it certainly doesn't help when we eat ouside the home. These days its all about 'value for money', 'the bigger the better' and 'upsizing for little money'. The muffins are huge, the burgers are huge, the drinks are huge, and when eating snacks and/or meals outside of the home becomes a common place occurrence, this really starts to impact on your balance of kilojoules in vs energy out.

But this task is not only about reducing portion sizes, it's also about increasing portion sizes! For example, a great deal of us don't reach the recommended 5 serves of veg each day (as we discussed in an earlier task) so the focus for this task will be different for each of us. Some will be making an effort to increase veg and meat and proteins, while others may be reducing meat and proteins and 'extras'!

So what is considered a portion and how many portions of each food group should we be eating each day?

Here is a quick run down of the more common foods and their serving sizes - some you may be a little surprised at! How do your serves stack up???!

The updated Australian Dietary Guidelines are due out early this year (2013) which I will go through with you all when they are published.

Check out this page which I thought was a nice visual way of understanding what a serve size is. You could print it out and post it on your fridge as a reminder of how much is enough!!

Now always keep in mind that the bigger picture is the quality of the food that you are eating. For example, focus on whole grains, minimally processed foods, a wide varieties of colours when choosing fruits and vegetables, good quality meats, and good quality fats and oils.

OK so lets get to work! Write down your goals for this task in your journal, and draw a plate like the one below, dividing it up the way your portions would currently look (no cheating!!).

If this task is done correctly, and weight loss or maintenance is your goal, you may find this is the task that really starts to give you results!

Sunday, 20 January 2013

For some of us, snacking can actually be the undoing of all our good work at meal times. I've seen it so many times where almost textbook meals are eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and yet between those meals, a heap of counteractive snacking happens!

Tuesday, 15 January 2013

Now this is a loaf that you don't have to feel guilty about eating! Actually you should eat this! For breakfast? Yup! For morning tea? Yup! Afternoon tea? Yup! Dessert? Yup!

Why?
When I developed this, I wanted a guilt free, nutrient rich recipe that could be eaten at any time in the day. Of course guilt free and nutrient rich is no good if it isn't delicious, right? So with those three requirements in mind, I set to work!

Sunday, 6 January 2013

Welcome back to the STEPS program! And our second task for the year! How did you go over the Christmas/New Year period? Hopefully you gave yourself at least some time for reflection on the previous 7 tasks, but more importantly took the time to really enjoy and cherish family and friends!

So what is this task about? Well it isn't about becoming a 100% 'raw foodist', although I am certainly not knocking anyone following this way of eating. But I truly believe in the benefits of cooking some foods just as much as leaving some raw, so I feel a mix of these is ideal, and realistic to most of us.

About Me

Everything about me screams food, food and more food!!! I have always worked with food, studied food (I'm a nutritionist) and even before I was working or studying I was cooking up a storm in the kitchen as a young child. I guess you could call me a social and professional FOODIE!
My latest recipe development project is hot off the press - a recipe booklet for the McKenzie Foods fantastic legume product range. Receive your free copy of 'home made' by contacting McKenzie Foods on +61 (03) 9398 4011